Control Light!

I must say, this has been an amazing week. I purchased a two light strobist kit in the mail a couple of weeks ago and it arrived recently so I had to learn how to use it. How did I do this? Well, I have been reading a lot lately, some scientific, some technical, and others artistic. The first thing that pushed me into this strobist movement is probably the man who coined the term, David Hobby, who writes the blog Strobist. You can find everything you need to know to start off on your way to becoming a better master of off camera lighting. It's an amazing way to make your photos more dynamic and artistic while giving them a professional look that is so easily recognizable.

While I definitely recommend strobist to start with, there are other ways you can learn about off camera flash(OCF). For instance, flickr hosts a plethora of great strobists who are willing to show their techniques and tricks to get that unique photo you couldn't get with an on camera flash. In my opinion, one of the best ways to learn OCF is by looking at photos that spell it out for you. A lot of people don't want to learn the inverse square law, and that's okay(unless you want to be the best :)), so turn to other platforms of learning. The best source of spelling things out in an easy to understand format would have to be Dustin Diaz's flickr profile. He is/was a huge flickr "star" that gave people great photographs every day in addition to pictures of the lighting setups he used for most of them. He also wrote the article "Flash photography, and pwning the inverse square law" which every aspiring strobist should read to become well-versed in the science behind the subject. Knowing the background information is crucial to succeeding as a strobist and on a broader spectrum, a photographer.

The last method to learning how to use OCF should be the most obvious....get out and DO it. Practice, practice, practice. You've heard it a million times and it is hands down the best way to increase your knowledge of the subject. Yes, you will fail...get over it. We all fail at some point so you just have to realize it's inevitable and practice so you can grow and reduce your odds of failing when the consequences are serious.

I have produced two photos this week that I am proud of...the first is number 9 out 52 photos for the year and it is also my first photo to make it to flickr's explore(top 500).

The second is a self portrait that was my second photo to make it to explore.

Valentine's Day

So this is a little late but seeing as how my total view count per day is up to .001...I don't think you'll mind. I know that my pessimism surrounding the following of my blog is probably more of a turn-off than I want it to be but honestly, this is mostly for my own good. So this photo idea came from the flickr community and the lighting was fueled by the creativity found at the best photography blog(IMO)...Strobist. If you don't know anything about strobe lighting...an hour on this blog will give you enough information to start improving your photos ten-fold. I don't have the equipment many people use for this type of photography(yet) but some great kits can be found at Midwest Photo Exchange. For $500 you can have 2 flashes built specifically for the strobist community, some low-quality but perfect starting level wireless transmitters and all the goods to go along with it. I'll leave the rest of the lighting tips up to David Hobby over at Strobist. So for this photo I took a mirror and put it on top of a table next to a window that was letting in some bright morning light. I put the subject(heart candy) on the mirror and played with the aperture to get the correct depth of field(DoF). From here I turned my flash on, did a test shot, turned the power down(mind you this is all on-camera) and eventually I got the lighting I wanted. I liked the image while looking at it on the lcd but thought I could bring more life and a better style out of it through post-processing. I uploaded it into Lightroom and used some of their presets to come up with this final image.